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ACE Grant

The ACE grant is a grant for, "advancing community-engaged student scholars" in the CCSEL-DU Grand Challenges program. I started as just a mentor for the DU-WHS STEM Mentoring Collaboration and my participation was just an internship until I had the honor of becoming a part of the student leadership team. Along with my new leadership duties I was also able to apply for the ACE grant to increase my involvement with the program. My new aim was to research and understand the mentee experience while at the same time asking what the mentor experience was like. The end product was a formal research paper.

“I learned that time management is a very important thing in college so that you have time for school and also wants and needs”-WHS mentee

“I learned how to combine my life experiences with others to create a helpful discussion" -DU Mentor

Abstract

The University of Denver (DU) collaboration with Westminster High School (WHS) is a near-peer mentoring program for students interested in STEM and as a part of their biomedical capstone course. The aim of this collaborative program is to encourage high school seniors to pursue STEM careers after graduation. The aim of this study is to understand the mentee and mentor experience based on surveys gathered weekly from the mentees and a one-time targeted survey for mentors. Five major themes of the mentee experience were identified: self-management, health, university insights, community and making connections, and career and professional development. The high school mentees indicated these major themes in their mentoring experiences via exit surveys administered after each session. Three major themes of the mentor experience were identified, perceptions of their participation in the program, leadership and professional development, and intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence development.

Mentee Experience Themes:​

  1. Self-management​

  2. Career & Professional Development​

  3. Health​

  4. Community & Making Connections​

  5. University Insights

Mentor Experience Themes:​

  1. Enjoyment of participation in the program​

  2. Leadership & Professional Development​

  3. Intrapersonal & Interpersonal Intelligence

The word cloud above displays the highest-frequency words included in the survey responses of mentees. The most mentioned word was “learned” which was used 127 times. The second most used word was “time” keying in at 70 uses. The third most used word was “college”, it was mentioned 68 times.
The word cloud above displays the highest-frequency words included in the survey responses of mentors. The word “think” was the most used 11 times. “Learned” was the second most used word, being used 8 times. The third most used word was “leadership” which was used 6 times. The fourth most used word was a tie between “career”, “feel”, “future”, “mentees”, and “skills.
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